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Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Havoc Game 3: Battle for the Temple - Part 1

Having whet our swords on two smaller games, my wife and I decided to have a blow-out, 2000 point game of Havoc with all the bells and whistles. She took her standard Amazons and I took the Romans -- with the addition of a Roman cleric who had been trafficking with infernal powers and had summoned a demon behemoth and a Horde of smaller demons.

Map

Amazon
temple in the middle of the table surrounded by patches of jungles.
Armies started at opposite ends of a 5 foot long, 3 foot wide table.

Special Rules

Due
to the energy surround the temple, if any magus prepares augmentation
while within the walls of the temple, the magus will receive 8 tokens
instead of 4. However, channeling such energy comes at a price -- the
Magus must also resolve a 2 dice Impact Hit or have his/her brain melted
by the coruscating energies.

Amazon Army List

The Named

Magus (Green hair, purple dress)

Knight Furioso (Green with wings)

Berserker (Green with vines?)

Fencer (red cape, purple hair)

and her less named sister melee and shield (purple cape, red hair)

Behemoth (Serpent Woman)

Heavy Chariot

5x Great Weapons (red with axes)

6x Spear and Shield (Purple spears)

1x Musician

1x Standard Bearer

6x Light Cavalry

6x Archers

6x Skirmishers (slingers but used as skirmisher - no ranged attack)

Roman Army List

The Named

Magus

Captain

Basher

The Horde (Skirmisher horde of demons)

1x Ballistae (artillery)

2x Artillery Crew

6x Sword and Shield (1st Legion)

6x Sword and Shield (2nd Legion)

6x Sword and Shield (3rd Legion)

6x Spear and Shield (9th Legion)

1x Behemoth (Demon)

2x Behemoth (Elephants)

Setup

One thing we really needed was more terrain, as my Roman command squad was about to discover. The Amazons are to the left in this overview; Romans are to the right.

The Amazon center and left (from player's perspective) flank. Archers at the rear, Command squad of Named, Behemoth (the large Serpenty figure with multiple arms) and Heavy Chariot in the center. To their front are the berserkers (great weapons) and 2 skirmishers. The left flank (right side of the picture) has a Spear and Shield regiment.

Amazon right flank -- light cavalry and skirmishers.

Roman right flank:

Light cavalry (not pictured - offscreen left)

Demon skirmisher Horde

Demon Behemoth

9th Legion, standing in front of 3rd Legion

Ballista and Artillery Crew (note that the Captain on white horse is touching the base of the ballista - this is significant in Turn 1 when the Amazons let loose an archer volley)

Roman center:

Captain

2 Musicians

Standard Bearer

Magus

2 Elephants (Behemoths)

Unfortunately the Roman player didn't get any pictures of the left flank. Bad form, sir, bad form! Oh well, the Amazons are prettier. In any event, the 1st and 2nd Legions are off-screen right from the Roman center.

The Action

Note: In
some cases I have combined actions from the cleverly named phase 1 and
phase 2 to make the narrative flow a little smoother (such as the Amazon
archer action in Turn 1).

After careful consideration, both players awarded each other 1 Havoc Token for having painted armies.

Turn 1

Momentum: Amazons

The Roman ballista can see a single model and takes a shot - a hit! Now, normally I can't guess a range to save my life, but in this game I was dead on. (And I hate, hate, hate guessing mechanics so in further battles artillery have been house-ruled to eliminate guessing). The damage roll is...30 points against a very respectable 16 armor save. First kill to the Romans.

However, this prompted an Amazon move to bring archers to bear and the Romans have the dubious honor of learning exactly why volley fire is so frightening in Havoc. Seconds later, the entire artillery crew and 1 of 2 Musicians lie dead, the brightly colored feathered shafts of Amazon arrows protruding from a dozen places in their lifeless bodies. This attack actually has a decent chance to kill off the entire command squad, so it could have been even more damaging. The rest of the squad flees to hide behind one of the elephants. (I have a personal image of the musician preparing to sound the maneuver on his horn: "Dum-di-di-du...awak!")

To take out the archers, the Romans move 1st Legion (while "taking a knee" to turtle forward) and the demon skirmishers run ahead of their demon behemoth. But Amazon skirmishers and cavalry are heading that way, too. It's a race to see who gets there first and it's not looking good for the Roman flank.

On the left flank, the Amazon Knight Furioso flies forward to take shelter in the temple walls. The Amazon chariot also heads this way with the Roman 2nd and 3rd legion directly ahead of the scything wheels. The rest of the Roman infantry advances with the exception of one legionnaire who runs to re-crew the ballistae (geez, totally forgot to apply the penalty for only having one crew. Oh, well - there was a LOT going on in this game!)

Here's the situation from the Roman point of view at the end of Turn 1:

From left to right:

Left flank: Roman 1st and 2nd Legions have moved forward.

Center: Elephants and command squad are moving as fast as they can. Blood spots indicate the carnage of the archer volley. The ballista has been re-crewed (you can see the missing figure from 3rd Legion directly in front of the ballista). And 9th Legion is turtling forward.

On the right flank, the demon skirmisher horde has advanced, screening the Roman cavalry and the Demon behemoth (which can just barely be seen peeking from the palm tree)

Coming soon - Part 2! We now pause for a brief intermission. It was a choice tonight between finishing the AAR or painting up some figures for the next game of Havoc! Guess which won? :-)

Rudy slumbers peacefully as the battle rages above his head and little bits of red and blue felt fall on him as we cut out blood spots to mark casualties. (Blue? Yes, blue. What color did you think demon's blood was?)